


Apples & Leaves

by Michyeon



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 60s, Friendship, Gen, Summer Falls (Clara's bok written by 'Amelia Williams'), pre s07e10 Journey at the center of the TARDIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:23:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michyeon/pseuds/Michyeon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara was sitting in the TARDIS, her favourite book in her arms. She looked again at the cover she knew by heart. She lost the count of how many times she read Summer Falls written by Amelia Williams. She’s never found any other books from the same author, sadly. She needed this story with her in this adventure with the Doctor. It was the only thing that could remind her who she was and where she came from. Because traveling like this with an alien out from nowhere frightened her a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language sorry for the grammar/poor vocabulary

Clara was sitting in the TARDIS, her favourite book in her arms. She looked again at the cover she knew by heart. She lost the count of how many times she read Summer Falls written by Amelia Williams. She’s never found any other books from the same author, sadly. She needed this story with her in this adventure with the Doctor. It was the only thing that could remind her who she was and where she came from. Because traveling like this with an alien out from nowhere frightened her a bit.

“Well, I think we’re ready to go Clara” rejoiced the Doctor. “It only needs a destination. Tell me where you would like to go this time?” he ran around the TARDIS’ console to her.   
Clara looked up at him.  “You always ask me but you always have an idea in mind don’t you.”  
“Past or future?” he asked her.   
“ Past! Earth’s past not really in an “alien-mood” today.  
\- Fine, I was thinking about Paris in the 20’s. We could visit the _Moulin Rouge_.” said he with his best French accent. “I bet you’ve seen the movie _Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir_. “He started to sing. Clara laughed. “You only want to see lovely ladies moving their beautiful legs half-naked don’t you? But alright sounds fun!” She put her book on the TARDIS console “We could learn to dance the Cancan and even get some dresses”  
“I’m sure we’ll find a beautiful dress for you. For me, I doubt it.” The Doctor smiled. “I’m just a bit hungry aren’t hungry Clara? I’m going to look for some milk and cupcakes I have somewhere down there. “  
“Are they the ones you carried off from my home two weeks ago?”  
“Could be” he answered “We should eat them all now” he left so quickly Clara couldn’t see him when he pronounced the end of his sentence.

She waited alone looking at the TARDIS’ ceiling. This old cow is splendid though she thought. She leaned on the console and suddenly the TARDIS shuddered. She apparently pressed by mistake a button.  “Oops” she said. Sparks went out from the console and Clara started to worry. “Doctor?” she shouted “I’m sorry I pressed a switch resting on the console” No answer. The TARDIS stopped in a loud noise, Clara nearly fell. “Doctor?!” she shouted again “What happened? Nothing serious I hope” The Doctor still didn’t answer. Clara decided to go find him but once arrived at the door between the command room and the corridor she felt an unpleasant energy go through her body and she was thrown back on the floor.  She lifted up and went again slowly to the door and moved her hand trying to touch the door. Her finger met something invisible and she felt a shock as if there was an hidden electricity wall preventing her from the rest of the TARDIS except she knew it wasn’t electricity, it didn’t feel like electricity.  “Doctor!” she attempted again.

She turned around like if she would find help somewhere in the room. “Did you do it on purpose?” she accused to the TARDIS “You do not like me I get that but it’s not a reason to stuck me alone here.” There was only one other issue to try: the TARDIS door but Clara didn’t trust it. What if it was a trap? What if the aim was to make Clara go out where the TARDIS brought her? She approached, touched the door handle still hesitating. She pondered. “What the hell this is the only thing I can do” and she pushed the door and stepped out.

She discovered surprised green grass and a sunny day. Judging from the high buildings around her she was in a city, a big city. Suddenly she noticed there was a woman standing in front of her out of breath. She had long and beautiful red hair, a round face and long skinny legs. She seemed confused. She obviously saw the TARDIS landing.   
“I’m sorry miss you shouldn’t have seen that” said Clara nervously.  
The woman was still looking at the TARDIS’ door like if she hoped something else will have come out. She reported her attention on Clara. “Where’s the Doctor?” asked she still trying to take her breath.  “You know about the Doctor?”  Clara stammered.   
“You’re traveling with him don’t you?” continued the woman “Why don’t he come out?” her voice broke a little. She knew the Doctor which made Clara feel a bit better but this woman wanted to see him. She apparently ran when she saw the TARDIS to see him. But he was on the other side of the electric wall, they couldn’t reach him.  And watching the look of hope on the woman’s face Clara felt bad for her. “I’m so sorry” said she “He can’t – I … I don’t know… There’s something wrong with the TARDIS … I pushed a button by mistake and she landed here. The Doctor is stuck on the back of the TARDIS he didn’t answer me when I called him”  
The woman closed her eyes for a few seconds. She took her breath and looked down. ”Of course” she replied. What did she mean by that Clara didn’t know but she felt she shouldn’t ask her?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clara and Amy get acquainted

“I’m Clara by the way.” Clara said hoping the poor girl will drop her eyes from the TARDIS but she didn’t. She didn’t even reply.  
“Can I just enter into the TARDIS? I need… I need to see it just one more time” asked the girl finally opening her mouth. Clara hesitated. She didn’t know who she was, she could want to steal it or damage it. But something in her made Clara trust her.  
She nodded “Yes, yes of course”.  
She followed her step inside the blue box watching her react to it. “It changed” said the girl. “Everything has changed, I don’t recognize anything.” Clara could hear the tears in her voice. She looked at her face. Her eyes were wide opened and a bit wet. She walked slowly around the console, contemplating the ceiling, the walls. Maybe it was her, the Doctor’s friend he lost, the ghost she didn’t want to compete against.  
“It’s so … blue.” She remarked. “Blue, dark and sad”  
“How was it before?”  
“Kind of orange I think… I don’t even remember” she laughed “More joyful than this for sure”  
She noticed something on the chair. “They’re mine” she whispered. “Those glasses are mine. He kept them.”  
“Those are your glasses?” The Doctor used to wear them quite often. He always read with those. Clara didn’t feel like telling her this. She supposed this was already painful enough for her. She kept watching her thinking over who she was for the Doctor and what could happen to separate them.  
“And the Doctor he’s somewhere down there?” she asked pointing at the corridor  
“Yes… probably… Actually I don’t even know what happened to him… Neither what happened to me” answered Clara  
the girl tried, like Clara did before, to pass the door of the corridor. But her hand met the invisible wall and she quickly removed it like electrocuted.

She stood there looking at the door and, suddenly, she turned around.  
“I’ll help you.” She stated  
“What?” Clara replied surprised.  
“I don’t know what I can do but I traveled with the Doctor once, I was used to all this weird alien stuff. I might be able to help you.” She explained. “I’ll help you Clara… Or try at least”.  
She sounded so glad at this moment Clara couldn’t say no.  
“Fine… I guess I don’t have any other issues anyway”  
For the first time the girl smiled. “I’m Amelia but call me Amy”.  
  
They locked the TARDIS and walked through the place Clara landed which actually was a park. She didn’t notice that before, she hasn’t noticed a lot of thing beyond Amy.  
“Where are we by the way?” she asked  
“Central park, Manhattan, New York, United States of America, Earth.” Informed Amelia  
“Shall I ask when?”  
“April 7th 1968”  
“Is that your era?” hazarded Clara.  
Amy looked down. “No” she responded. “What about you, what’s your era?”  
“The 2010’s. 2013 exactly”  
“What is it like?” questioned she  
“Technology everywhere, economic crisis, gay rights debate…” said Clara trying to sum up the year the best she could.  
“Yes, that’s how I remember 2013” Amelia replied “Bad summer weather too…”  
“I’ve only lived half of the spring for now”  
Amy laughed “Sorry for the spoiler”  
Clara still didn’t know when she was from or what happened to her for being stuck in the 60’s.  
They arrived to the street and took a yellow New Yorker taxi. Clara didn’t really know where Amy was taking her. She assumed they went to her house.  
During the path she noticed a ring Amy was wearing on her right annular. She was probably engaged or married. But when they arrived, Clara saw only her name written on the door “Amelia Pond”. Her flat was pretty and large enough for one or two person.  
“Not bad for someone who arrived there with nothing, hey? I managed to get a job quickly and I have a good office in a magazine. It pays well.” Explained Amelia  
Clara looked a bit at the flat’s decoration but it wasn’t her main concern “Amy…What are we planning to do about me?”  
Amelia hesitated “Tell me what happened exactly for a start”

Clara told everything about the incident to Amelia even though there wasn’t much to say. Amelia didn’t react at all, focused on the story. She waited the end to ad “The TARDIS refused to let you go to the corridor and there’s probably a reason”  
“She doesn’t like me.” Responded Clara  
“What do you mean she doesn’t like you?”  
“She kind of rumbles when I get in. Once she refused to let me open the door once. The Doctor didn’t say anything about it” explained Clara.  
“The only thing the TARDIS do is protect the Doctor. She only cares about him.” Remarked Amelia.  
“Protect him from what? Sixties New York?”  
“From me” answered Amelia like if it was normal. “The Doctor said he won’t be able to reach me after- After what happened to me.” She explained before Clara could open her mouth. “The TARDIS shouldn’t be here but something forced her to land. Did you do anything special just before it happens?”  
“Nothing I can remember” Clara said  
“Because it isn’t a coincidence if it landed at this time at this place just in front of my eyes”  
“This is why she had problems to land. Because you were there… “Clara stopped and thought a bit… “Amelia … what happened?”She decided to try.  
Amelia looked down “It’s a bit complicated”  
“The Doctor talked to me about a friend he had and who died when she invited me for the first time.”  
“I didn’t die and the Doctor knows it” snapped Amelia  
“Obviously. But in 2013 you could be dead.”  
“He’s a Time Lord he doesn’t have an era like you and me. Either he lied to avoid explaining either he was talking about someone else. He could have another friend between you and me or even a hundred it would be the same.” Her voice broke but they both ignored it.  
“Maybe you’re right.” It was totally possible. The Doctor was a mysterious man… In fact he wasn’t even a man. Why Clara trusted him so much?

“It’s getting late, you should sleep here on the couch.” said Amelia after a few minutes breaking Clara’s thoughts.  
“I really don’t want to bother you. I could go to a hotel or something”  
“With what money?” asked Amelia with a little smile  
“Right…”  
“Stay here. Between Doctor’s friends we should help each other.”  
“Let me cook at least.” requested Clara “I make good soufflés… well more or less.” She suggested  
“Soufflés?” Repeated Amelia intrigued  
“Yes my mother used to make soufflés. I’ve never got to make them as delicious as hers though. My friends call me “soufflé girl” because of that” explained Clara.  
“Soufflé girl?” repeated Amelia confused  
“Something’s wrong?” asked Clara.  
“Nothing it’s just… Forget it.”  
Once again Clara decided to not ask more. Amelia’s story with the Doctor seems to be still painful for her.  
Amelia gave ingredients to Clara for her soufflé.  
“Have you ever eaten fish fingers with custard?” asked Amelia  
“Fish fingers?! With custard?!” Repeated Clara hoping she heard wrong.  
“Yes, this was our thing with the Doctor. He ate some in my kitchen the first time we met. My aunt yelled at me a long time when she saw all the things that missed in the fridge. He ate a lot of things this night… All I could say was that there was a raggedy doctor that came out from a blue box and wanted to eat. Of course they never believed me they thought I was crazy but you know children don’t understand that”  
Amelia was suddenly telling a lot of things about herself with a smile and a bit of nostalgia. Clara didn’t really know what she could learn there. Did Amy meet the Doctor when she was young? But she didn’t travel with him at that age, did she? Was the Doctor like an imaginary friend to her? Or did Clara misunderstand what she said?

During the evening they got acquainted talking about their lives, their childhood mostly. Clara told Amy the story of the leaf and Amy told Clara about the apple. Clara did miss the soufflé again but Amy ate it still. Clara tasted fish fingers and custard. That was weird she stopped at her first fish finger. Amy finished the plate.  
Tired, Amy went to sleep soon. Clara wasn’t asleep. She lied on the couch and thought about the TARDIS, the Doctor and imagined Amelia’s story from what she told her. Her eyes closed she fell asleep. She had nightmares this night, she was lost in an obscure place, and she screamed and asked where she was again and again without getting any answer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy tries to help Clara but entering in the TARDIS is a bit hard for her

Amelia slowly woke up when the room was still dark.   
She started to think of her work and what she’d do this day and suddenly heard restless breath from the living room and remembered: The TARDIS had landed just in front of her when she was crossing Central Park. She had seen this short and sweet girl coming out but not the Doctor. She had walked into the TARDIS and had realized all had changed. She had realized all has changed for the Doctor as for her. New companion, new TARDIS design… Amy was glad the Doctor didn’t stay alone and found a new friend, in the end he had listened to her. In the other hand she envied Clara for traveling with him. She had remembered all of her adventures with the Doctor… It hurt at first but then all the good memories had come back and she had this feeling she had to save someone again, for the first time for a long, long time. Now, she wanted to help Clara not knowing what this feeling was when you’re stuck alone in a place you don’t know, in a time you don’t know. Well, she decided to do it even if the Doctor wanted to stop her but she assumed at the time she wouldn’t be alone… She assumed she’d find Rory, her husband, and they’d live their life here in 60’s New York but he wasn’t there. Amy didn’t find him and she tried, she tried hard. The weeping angel, those creepy monsters, must have taken him in a different time. Weeping angels… they terrified her for a long time but after this, it was worst than ever. Weeping angels are her worst nightmare because without them she’d still be with the two most important men in her life… She blamed them because otherwise she’d blame her …  
She didn’t want Clara to know how it was. She wanted to help her go back to the Doctor but she had no idea how. The TARDIS is a complicated machine even the Doctor doesn’t know everything about it. The Doctor… she wondered how he was, stuck in the TARDIS. Did he even know he was stuck? If he did no doubt he was doing everything to go out and it was their best chance to solve this situation. If he did, he was certainly worried about Clara and Amy knew the last thing he wanted was to see one of those people he took away from home hurt. That was the other reason that pushed her to help Clara finding the Doctor faster. 

Amy looked at her clock: 6 a.m., too soon to get up too late to sleep more. She decided to go get a cup of water. She went silently by the living room trying not to wake up Clara. She drank her cup observing Clara in her unquiet sleep. The poor girl was apparently having a nightmare: she shift place over and over again, her face tensed and sweaty, her breath abnormally quick. Amelia didn’t dare wake her. She was sorry for her assuming her nightmare was related with what happened to her yesterday. “I’m so sorry Clara.” She though “I don’t think I’m really able to help you now. I thought having traveled with the Doctor would have made me able to help you but I was wrong. All I can do is stay with you. I’m sorry.”   
Like answering to her, Clara woke up with a start, confused and a bit panicked.   
“Are you alright?” asked Amy concerned  
“Yes” responded Clara trying to catch her breath “Yes… just… just a nightmare” she wiped the sweat on her forehead.  
Amy brought her some water and sat on the couch next to her.   
“I hope you don’t think I’m a pervert who watch you in your sleep or something. I just heard you and wanted to see if you were ok” said Amy.  
Clara smiled.   
“Amy… Can we just go back to the TARDIS? I left something there.” She requested her.   
“Yes, sure.” Replied Amy. “After all the TARDIS is the only clue we have to solve your problem”  
Clara stared at her. “You don’t really know how to solve my problem, do you?”   
Amy looked down. It was exactly what she was worrying about 5 minutes earlier. “It’s alright I didn’t expect you to know how to make the TARDIS work” Clara smiled.   
“We’ll figure it out, Clara, I promise” Amy knew she highly doubted she could keep this promise but they shouldn’t give up now. She touched Clara’s shoulder in sign of encouragement.

The sun rose. They had a typical English breakfast like Amy hadn’t in a while and they went to Central Park in order of finding the TARDIS. It hasn’t move. It was still there, in the same place. They entered hoping something would have change but nothing had: just a console with no enthusiastic Doctor to run around it. Amy tried to pass her hand through the corridor’s door again but she encountered the same ‘electric’ wall as the day before. She stared at the corridor. The Doctor was there, somewhere, probably running all around the TARDIS, anxious, trying to figure out how to fix it. 

Amy noticed Clara observed her. “Do you think he’s working on getting out of there?” asked Amy.   
“I hope so” replied Clara “He’s probably the only one who can make it work again”  
“Good answer” thought Amy. She took a look at the TARDIS’ design again.   
“What did you want to pick up again?” she questioned.  
“Just an old book I read when I was a child, not a big deal.” Clara answered. “It just helps me to feel like home” 

Amy saw a large book on the console. She approached and observed the cover: a little girl was in the foreground and two boys were watching her in front of a river. They were all carrying torches and a dog was following them. She read the title “Summer Falls” and … something caught her attention and her throat tied up.  
She tried to keep calm. “Why… why this book has my name written on its cover?”   
“What?” said Clara confused  
“Summer Falls by Amelia Williams” she gulped. She felt tears coming to her eyes. “Amelia Williams” she repeated. “That’s my name”  
“But… on your door… it was written ‘Amelia Pond’ ” Clara was lost and at this moment she was getting on Amy’s nerves. She was suddenly angry at everything, she wanted to bawl, sob and hit something or someone. Why did her future book have to be Clara’s favourite book? Why did her future her have to sign with Rory’s last name? Someone could stab her in the back it would hurt less.   
“Even if your name was Amelia Williams there are a lot of Williams on this planet and one is probably named ‘Amelia’ too” Clara tried to calm her down.   
“No, that’s me!” Amy was certain. A little girl with two boys in front of a River? There were too many coincidences.   
“Williams… is that your husband’s last name?” asked Clara carefully.   
Amy cracked and started to cry. She didn’t know how she figured that out and didn’t want to know. The only thing she wanted to do was crying for an hour or two or maybe more, alone. 

She sat on the TARDIS’ floor. All the pain she had been through until this point was going out. Leaving the Doctor, looking for Rory for a whole year without succeeding, being on her own in this stranger city at this stranger era for two years, everything. She thought started to get over it with her new job but of course she didn’t. It still hurt as much as it was; she just avoided thinking about it. Why the TARDIS had to land here and remind her everything?  
Clara was awkwardly trying to comfort her but she just made it worst. Amelia needed to be alone but after a few minutes she changed her mind and started to tell everything to Clara because that was what she lacked this whole time: someone to talk to about her story, she saw that now. Average people wouldn’t understand. Clara was listening with attention with a sad look on her face that Amy wished she’d stop. 

“So I left the Doctor to go with my husband because it was what I did, being with him” she wept. “But when I got here he wasn’t there. At first I thought or I hoped he was somewhere near, I did look for him. I did for a long time. I went everywhere I could think of, asked everyone that could help me. I looked everywhere but there was always nothing about him. I didn’t know where to look anymore after one year so I just stopped.”   
For a few minutes all was silent, they only could hear Amy sniff then Clara questioned nicely “What was his name?”   
“Rory, his name was Rory Williams” Amy answered.   
“Funny, I actually fancied someone named Rory. We called him Nina in our secret code with friend, long story” Clara tried to lighten the mood. Her sentence reminded Amelia of something. The way she said it, this Rory/Nina combination… She felt like she met Clara before in a distant memory. But she didn’t really give attention to it at the moment.   
“Amy, before fixing my problem, let me help you find Rory.” Clara stated.   
“You can’t I looked everywhere” cried Amy a bit annoyed.  
“Come on, I’m sure you didn’t.”  
“I said I helped you but I can’t do anything, you want to help me but you can’t do anything either and you know it. What’s the point?”   
“You know what I meant then” answered simply Clara.  
Yes, Amy knew what she meant. She wanted to do something for her, to give her hope, to care about something else than her issue. Maybe it was the only thing they could do. “Maybe with her help I’ll find Rory” she thought, starting hoping.   
“Let’s pretend everything is ok and we’ll fix everything then” she replied a bit sarcastically which made Clara smile.  
That felt a bit like when she was with the Doctor. That felt like the Doctor’s optimism. That was perhaps what Amy needed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 60's New York, a day to chill out a little bit, what would you do ?

Amy and Clara agreed to not talk about Amy’s tears. Amy didn’t like to cry in front of anyone and was a bit ashamed of having shown her weakness. Clara was confused and tried to show sign of empathy as much as she could but felt that Amy didn’t want her to do that kind of things.  
They agreed to have a free day and went drink milkshakes near the park. There was an awkward silence during half of the time they were drinking their chocolate milkshakes. Amy broke it after while   
“So, hum…” she began “60’s New York in an afternoon what do you want to do? Where do you want to go?”  
“ I’ve already seen Central Park and tried a yellow cab… Let me see the Statue of Liberty and I’ve seen all the big New Yorker clichés” Clara answered trying to act normal.   
“Oh come on! This is too easy. You can go to 2013 New York, Statue of Liberty will still be there.” Clara tried not to think she could stay stuck in 1968 and could so wait a long, long time before living 2013 again. “Don’t you want to go for a little shopping?” continued Amy “You wear the same dress 2 days in a row and it’s not ‘sixties’ enough. A cute little Audrey Hepburn look: every woman once dreamt about that”  
“Haven’t you heard? Sixties are so fashion in 2013 that we can buy sixties clothes everywhere” Clara laughed.   
“Yeah… but it’s way less expensive here. And originals are always better than the fakes”  
Clara smiled. “With whose money?”  
“MY money, don’t you worry about it” assured Amy  
“You really don’t have to you’ve already offered me a night at your home and a milkshake… I -”  
“Don’t you worry about it” repeated Amy.  
They finished their milkshakes calmly.   
“Sixties? Isn’t that the Beatles’ era as the Rolling Stones’, Bob Dylan’s, Jimi Hendrix’s?” asked Clara suddenly excited  
Amy laughed “Yes, yes it is. And above all: vinyl’s era.”   
“You know any good little vinyl shop around here?” Clara asked.   
“Sure I do!” Amy smirked. “Oh and I totally forgot few days ago last Kubrick’s movie was released. Any craving of a vintage cinema experience?”  
“Totally! Let’s do this!” Clara rejoiced.

They went out the milkshake bar heads full of ideas of how they could spend their time.   
“I know a good dress shop over there” said Amy. They started to walk the way she pointed.   
“Hey Amy?” Clara started. Amy turned her head as a sign of attention. “Do you have a Polaroid?” asked Clara. “I thought it would make good souvenirs pictures…”  
“Sure I do, everyone once dreamt to have a Polaroid but it’s at home… I’ll buy one on the way and you’ll keep it for you” Amy answered. Clara opened her mouth to protest but Amy anticipated her reaction: “I told you to not worry about money”   
They bought one brand new Polaroid and went shopping. Amy took picture every time Clara went out of the dressing room. “Stop that! This one doesn’t suit me at all I don’t want souvenirs of that” Clara said at her 6th dress fitting. “You want souvenirs pictures you’ll have souvenirs pictures of every single moment” Amy smirked as answer. After one hour they’ve already found 3 dresses and some shoes (Clara strongly disagreed when Amy proposed to buy her the third one but Amy bought it anyway).  
They looked for cinema schedule and they chose a performance at 6. They stopped at a little restaurant: they hadn’t had lunch and Amy started to be hungry. And they went shop by shop looking for books, vinyls or comic books. Clara adored all that was typically from the sixties and took pictures of a lot of ads, to many if you asked Amy. She was delighted to see the lights of Broadway this where she took the most of ads pictures. “Look they did a musical about Carmen! I played Carmen at high school once. That was horrible.” She said when she saw an old poster of Carmen Jones musical that was on this wall since forever. Amy noticed once more that Clara made her think of someone. She still couldn’t remember who. She thought about it 10 minutes but forgot quickly: it was time for the 2001: Space Odyssey performance at the theatre.   
They spent 2 hours eating pop corn in front of this Sci-Fi movie which wasn’t that fictional for them since they actually lived 2001 and could say it doesn’t look like this at all, not even a little.  
The movie ended at 8 and they went back Amy’s house for dinner.   
There Amy found some old wine in her cupboard and decided to drink it with Clara. They weren’t that hungry so they didn’t eat that much whereas they drank a bit too much that rapidly had gone to their heads. The radio on, they danced and sang bursting in a laugh every minute on the Doors’ and the Beatles’ songs. They finished the wine bottle so they started a whisky one. They went tired of dancing and turned on TV.   
“Oh god did Martin Luther King died few days ago that’s really awful” said Clara with a high voice when she saw the news.   
“Yeah, that’s sad. I was surprised too.” Amy answered. “I’ve never been able to memorize those bloody birth and death dates so I’m always surprise when someone dies.” She slumped on the couch. “It’s like ‘wow I thought you’d last ‘til the end of the year at least’ every single time”.  
Clara slumped on the couch next to her and they watched TV together still drinking time to time.  
After the news, Star Trek was on.   
“Oh look, Science Fiction again.” Amy said with a more pronounced Scottish accent than usual.   
“You Scottish?” laughed Clara.   
“You tell me: do I have a Scottish enough accent to you? Or is that because I’m ginger?” Clara didn’t answer and just smiled.   
“I’ve never been to Scotland even though I’ve always wanted to” Clara continued.   
“I miss Scotland too. I’ve never been back there for a long, long time” Amy said without any sadness in her voice. Its funny how alcohol could make people look totally ridiculous but make them talk about serious stuff and deep questions. “You know why? A crack in my wall ate my parents and I’ve never met them until my marriage, when the Doctor fixed it, and it’s really awkward to see them again they’re my parents but they’re strangers at the same time.”  
“Amy, you’re drunk: a crack in a wall cannot eat people” Clara laughed  
“Don’t mock me. Mine could. It was magical!” Amy explained a bit too passionately. “It even saved me once. But it made the ducks in the duck pond disappear.” Amy pouted.   
“Is that why your last name is ‘Pond’?” Clara laughed again.   
“Shut up that was the drama of my childhood. Easy mocking other’s names when yours doesn’t really mean anything. “Amy replied.   
“Oswald is such a boring last name… you cannot make pun with it” said Clara. “Sometimes I call myself ‘Oswin’: that’s ‘Oswald’ with ‘win’ in it, means I’m a winner”  
Amy laughed. “I’ve met an Oswin once but turns out she was a dalek”  
“What’s a dalek?” Clara asked confused.   
“Exactly!” Amy exclaimed. “Never really knew. That’s just like an ugly salt shaker who has an awful voice with which he can only say one word. That’s really annoying”  
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Clare laughed again.

They hadn’t followed the Star Trek episode at all too busy with their fascinating talk. They put their attention back to the TV. After a few 10 minutes Clara broke the silence again “Do you think distorsion is real in the future?”  
“Never saw it, not even something that looks like it… and I’ve seen a lot of things believe me” Amy replied.  
“Yeah? Like talking salt shakers?” They laughed together. “Would be cool though” Clara drank another shot. “If you want my opinion the TARDIS is way too noisy”  
“Tell me about it.” Amy sat up straight to pour her whisky again. “Oh look we finished another bottle we really should stop”  
“Reason has spoken” Clara said putting her glass back on the table.  
The Star Trek episode ended. “Oh no!” said Clara “It’s over and I haven’t watch. I don’t know how it ends… or how it starts either”  
Amy turned off the TV. “We should go to sleep now.”  
“How many companions do you think the Doctor had?” asked suddenly Clara.   
Amy wasn’t even surprise of this serious subject suddenly appearing in the conversation. “A hundred? A thousand? Or even a billion? We’ll probably never know.”  
“Don’t you ever think about why he left them or why they left him? Don’t you ever want to talk to one of them sometimes?”   
“Well, you are talking to one of them right now and she thinks she’s going to have a bad hangover tomorrow so she’s going to bed. Good night!” Amy went to her room.  
Clara, even drunk, had her mind busy with this companion question. She started to remember the big design they were in and decided not to sleep now. Not able to walk straight she went to find the book she wanted so bad earlier in the day. “Summer Falls” she read at loud. “What an inspired title, Amy.”  
She sat on the couch and opened the book. She read again the preface.  
The future tries to help the past and the past can help the future. Everyone wants a part of their past back for a reason or another because they know summer is always better than the upcoming winter. But everyone forgot to cherish the present. Summer will come again with its delicious apples but, meanwhile, take care of autumn’s leaves. The future tries to help the past and the past can help the future but present helps them both.  
“What does that even mean? “ Clara asked herself. “Were you drunk when you wrote it Amy?” Six letters were written at the bottom of the page: RYCBAR. “I bet this is why the kids made their wifi password ‘RYCBAR’“thought Clara. She remembered how Artie tried to find a meaning at those letters. “Run You Clever Boy And Remember” was his favourite meaning so they all agreed to think it was. Clara had never really taken care of those six letters.  
Clara wasn’t asleep so she reread the beginning of the book. She lost the count of time she spent reading.   
She fell asleep after a while. She woke up when the sun was up and felt her head a bit heavy. “Clara you know alcohol isn’t good for you” she thought. She noticed Amy was already up too.   
“Hard wake up?” she smirked.   
“Does it look that bad?” Clara replied.   
“You read your childish book written by my future self last night?”   
“Apparently”  
“Do I have good writing skills?” Amy asked with a smile.   
“Your preface doesn’t make much sense” Clara laughed “‘The future helps the past and the past can help the future’ that kind of thing”  
Amy frowned. “What did you say?”  
“Your preface was-“  
“No, after that”  
“‘The future helps the past and the past --‘“answered Clara confused  
“‘the past can help the future but present helps them both’ “Amy finished.   
“How do you know about that? I haven’t –“  
“Yeah and did the preface talk about summer’s apples and autumn’s leaves?” Amy asked  
“How do you know that?”  
“I wrote that last night because I couldn’t sleep” answered Amy.   
“That’s why we couldn’t understand it, you were drunk last night” Clara started to understand. “And do you wrote anything like ‘RYCBAR’?” asked Clara.   
“No, that I haven’t yet.”   
“The kids always wanted to know what that meant, they searched a lot never found out” Clara said.   
“If this could help you I was thinking about you when I wrote this: how you, autumn, the present, helped me, summer, the past…”  
“And who’s the future then?” Asked Clara.   
“I thought more about future me, you want to help both past me and future me.” Amy explained.   
“But future you try to help past you and past you can help future you.” Clara suddenly understood. “I think I get it!”  
“Get what?”  
“RYCBAR could be a clue to find Rory from future you to present me for past you!” Clara exclaimed.   
“You’re overreacting” laughed Amy.  
Clara looked at the page where she left the book opened.   
“What a coincidence that was the last page I read and there precisely a ‘Ryc Bar’ “ noticed Clara.   
“ Isn’t that supposed to be spelled ‘R I C K B A R’ “ replied Amy a bit annoyed  
“But it’s spelled ‘R Y C B A R’ here. There’s even a comment about that from the heroin ‘That bartender thinks that’s it’s cooler to spell his first name with a Y and without K but it’s not’ “ Clara stated.  
“Okay, you have a point” answered Amy.  
Clara kept reading. After a few minutes she stopped.   
“I think I know where Rory is.” Amy looked up, interested, asking her by her stare. “The ‘Ryc Bar’ has an address: White Timber Street, Chicago.”  
“That is clearly a made up street name” replied Amy.   
“What if it’s not? We don’t have anything to lose” Clara tried to convince Amy.   
“Yes, we have: money to go to Chicago that’s not next door” Amy snapped.   
“Don’t you worry about money” said Clara with a smile.  
Amy smiled back. “Easy to say when it’s not yours.” Clara smiled wider. “OK, I surrender. Come on, dress up, we’re going to Chicago” said Amy. Clara rejoiced and ran to the bathroom. “And put one of your new dresses on!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clara and Amy go to Chicago to try to find Rory

Amy and Clara were both ready to go. They took a taxi to the JFK airport. Once the taxi driver started up the car Amy sighed.  
“I’m really not sure about this” she said. “Do you have any idea about the cost of a plane ticket? And we’re not even sure about what we’re going to find there. That’s insane!”  
Clara didn’t reply anything.   
“What would he even do in Chicago, that stupid face?” Amy continued talking to herself more than to Clara.   
“Have you ever been to Chicago?” asked Clara.   
“No, I haven’t.”   
“Why aren’t you excited to discover a new city then? It’s not that usual in normal life.”  
Amy smiled as answer.   
They spent the rest of the ride doing the regular talk with the driver ‘Where are you going?’, ‘Beautiful day isn’t it?’, ‘Chicago huh? My [insert family member or friend who lives there] lives there, pretty city they say’. Once arrived at the airport, Amy bought 2 tickets for the first flight to Chicago and they flew away to Illinois State.   
Clara fell asleep on the plane while Amy’s thought about Rory kept her awake. Why did she even trust a rather far-fetched clue in a book that she will write one day? She saw the book in Clara’s bag at her feet. She was tempted to open it and read it even if it was a stupid story for children. But she remembered too well what happened the last time she read a book written in the future. Why would she even write a book? To help her past self? Come on, you have to get inspiration for a story, a good story that she’d sell well enough to get it publish in UK for young Clara to buy it. She liked to write but she would never be able to write an entire novel…   
Her thought returned to Rory… She wasn’t excited about finding him, she was rather scared. After all this time what would he say when he’ll see her again? He might not love her anymore, what they lived and sixties America can change a person.   
Finally the cabin crew announced “We’ll reach Chicago in a few minutes, hope you spent an enjoyable journey aboard”  
“Clara, wake up, we’re arriving.”  
Clara moaned as an answer.   
The plane landed. Clara half-asleep picked up her bag and get up.   
“You really didn’t sleep a lot last night did you?” smirked Amy.  
They reached the airport building and took a taxi to Chicago.   
“Now what?” Clara said  
“Good question” Amy answered.   
“Should we take a hotel first?” Clara proposed  
“Yes, yes we should insure we have a place to sleep tonight.”  
The driver who heard their conversation reported “You’re searching a hotel? My cousin had one in a lovely neighborhood not so far from the center of the city. It’s rather little but it’s really nice and she doesn’t request a lot for a night.” Yes, taxi driver always have someone in their family who had something to do with what we are up to. But in this case it was helpful.  
Amy and Clara looked at each other asking the other by their stare.   
“Yeah, why not?” Amy said finally  
“Yes, let’s go to your cousin’s hotel then” added Clara.  
Again, they spend the rest of the ride talking to the taxi driver. Apparently content they went to his cousin’s hotel he talked about how nice was the place and how good her cooking was. Then he noticed by their accent they were from UK so he asked plenty of questions about why they were there and how they found the country. At last they reached the hotel. The driver saluted his cousin and they started to talk together.  
With their suitcases Amy and Clara stopped to look at them.   
“I hope she talks less than him or we’ll still be there tomorrow” Amy said.   
“I hope they haven’t plot against their costumers to swindle them” Clara said.  
The taxi driver and her cousin finally ended their talk and Amy and Clara took a chamber. It was little and the tapestry was dreadful but the two beds seemed to be cozy.   
“Remember me to never trust a taxi driver who’s selling his cousin’s hotel to me. “ Amy said.  
“Come on it isn’t that bad, it’s kind of cute” Clara replied.   
“I hope by ‘cute’ you don’t mean you like this dark green tapestry full of flowers”   
“Yes, that’s really awful” Clara admitted. “Anyway I’m hungry let’s taste her cooking”  
“Okay, let’s go. I just hope her cooking tastes are better than her tapestry tastes” 

They had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant. It was rather tasty. While eating their apple pies, Clara decided to mention Rory’s topic again.   
“So how we’ll go to White Timber Street?”  
Amy stopped chewing for a second. “Please no more taxis” she answered.   
“Ma’am” Clara called the driver’s cousin. “Do you know a White Timber Street by any chance?”  
The woman turned round “I don’t think so, you can take a look at this map” she pointed a map on the wall. Clara stood up to look at it. “White Timber Street, White Timber Street” she repeated to help herself. After a few minutes she found it.   
“There!” she shouted.   
Amy looked at her “You found it?”  
“That is not so far away from it we could go afoot”  
“You mean, the street actually exists it was not a made up name” Amy rejoiced.   
“Yes, Amy, yes the White Timber Street does exist and I bet your husband is down there somewhere!”   
Clara went to pick up her cell phone to take a picture of the map.   
“Be discreet, there’s no such thing than smart phones in the sixties” Amy reminded her.  
They walked to White Timber Street guided by the map picture on Clara’s cell phone. Amy was more and more anxious and Clara could see it but preferred to change subject to make Amy feel better. Amy appreciated it but it didn’t work well.   
“Here we are White Timber Street!” Clara announced.  
It was a little street; luckily, their search won’t be too long.  
Amy sighed to give herself some courage. “Williams is a very ordinary name, how will we be able to know if it’s him or not?”   
“We’ll just knock and see” Clara replied.  
They look at the names on the doors. And for the first 10 minutes they didn’t find Rory’s name on any. Amy was nearly convinced there was no hope left. She will make up a street name that actually exist, Chicago was a big city after all, and that’s all. But suddenly she saw it ‘Rory Williams’ on one door. She read it again, again and again to make sure it was written her husband’s name and she wasn’t imagining anything but no it was actually written ‘Rory Williams’ “Oh, that’s just luck” she thought.  
Clara had seen her stop and walked to her “Did you find it?” she asked. Clara read the name and smile “That’s it isn’t it? That’s your husband’s name. Amy you found him!”  
“Yes, I found him” Amy said surprised. She didn’t realize it yet she couldn’t smile and rejoiced as much as Clara… It was over she found him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy knocks to Rory's door but she hasn't expected this sort of reunion

Amy hesitated for a long time. Clara nicely waited for her encouraging her, watching her pacing up and down the street, seated on the little wall in front of the house. Finally Amy stopped and stood right in front of the house’s door.   
“Ready?” asked Clara.   
“Yes” replied Amy still not sure about it. “Geronimo!”  
That last word gave her strength to go right to the front door and knock energetically. She regretted it the second after: she wasn’t ready yet.  
But it wasn’t Rory who opened; it was a little boy aged around 5 or 6. Surprised and confused Amy could only say “What?” A woman’s voice came from behind “Frank, how many times did I say to you: you don’t open the door to strangers”. A woman with long blond hair showed behind the little boy. “Hi, sorry for that, can I help you?” she asked nicely.   
“What?” was, again, all that Amy had to say.   
Next to her Clara didn’t seem to understand better but tried to help Amy “Hi, we’re looking for ‘Rory Williams’ “  
“Oh sure!” the lady replied “Sweetie, come down here’s two British ladies who want to talk to you”  
“Sweetie?!” Amy repeated feeling the anger starting from her stomach.   
“You two are Rory’s friends from UK? That’s nice to make him a surprise he doesn’t have a lot of British friends who’s calling him. He doesn’t like to talk about it much” the lady said.  
Clara awkwardly faked a smile to her while Amy was staring at the inside of the house to see if this Rory was hers … Now she was hoping it wasn’t him.  
But it was. She saw her husband come to the door, smiling at this blond lady who called him ‘sweetie’ and who kissed him on the cheek. When he saw Amy he lost his smile … “Amy?” he mumbled. “Amy is that you?”   
Amy, speechless, stared at him the time the blond one and her kid walked away. She didn’t know if she should yell at him, break into tears or laugh about it. “a-Amy … I…” tried Rory certainly as much confused as her. Amy looked down, holding back her tears, “Yeah” she said laughing ironically to avoid crying, and she turned her back and walked away the faster she could to take her far far away from that stupid house, leaving Clara in a very awkward situation.  
Rory hadn’t moved still trying to figure out what just happened “…what?” he continued.   
Clara stared at the floor eyes wide open trying to find something to say. “I… I think she’s upset” she finally said. “You should leave her alone for now, come see her later. I’m Clara by the way”.   
“Yes, thanks, I know who you are Clara” said Rory.  
Clara thought she had heard wrong. “I’m sorry what?”  
“I know you Clara, you serve me a drink almost every day at Rick’s bar” continued Rory a bit annoyed.   
“No I don’t” she replied quickly. That was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. “I can’t know you I’m technically not even born yet”  
“Did Amy tell you weird story about a mad man in a blue box?” Rory tried to understand  
“She didn’t, I’ve traveled in this box and now I’m stuck here. I’m from 2013!” Clara started to lose her temper.   
“2013? Isn’t the year Prince George born, with the incredibly hot summer?”   
“Stop spoiling me what will happen on this year! I haven’t even lived the beginning of the spring!”  
“You mean you’re really not Clara from Rick’s bar?”   
“No I’m not! I don’t even understand what you’re referring to!”   
Rory stopped for a minute to think. “So what with Amy?” he finally asked.   
“She saw the TARDIS materialize in Central Park and I was stuck here so I decided to help her find you” Clara tried to explain. Shitty summary she thought.   
“I don’t understand I looked for her for months… She was nowhere.”   
“And that’s a reason to make out with some blond American?”  
“That’s between me and Amy… I haven’t even…” he sighed “I’ve never stopped thinking of her every day, I thought she abandoned me. I thought living with another woman will make me forget. And she just show like that 3 years later.”   
Clara just understood something “What did you say?”   
“‘She just shows like that 3 years later’ “Rory repeated.   
“Exactly” Clara said more for herself than for Rory.   
“Exactly what?” Rory tried to understand  
“Amy is her for only 2 years now. You spent 3 years there. You two just missed each other. While you were looking for her she wasn’t there. And when she was looking for you, you abandoned” Clara explained.   
“Oh.” Rory said “So she did look for me?”  
Clara smile “Of course she did! Why do you think we went here? … By the way… What’s with Chicago?” Clara asked.   
“I just followed Mary…” he answered.  
The blond woman, so she was called Mary, came out the house. “Why don’t you come in with your friends? Oh- where’s the ginger one?”   
“I have to go” said Rory. “Don’t wait for me”   
“What’s happening? You’re worrying me, Rory”  
“I just have something to do” he replied. He stepped outside the door. “Clara, are you coming or not?”   
Clara hurried to follow him; she didn’t want to stay here.  
They started to go the way Amy went. After a few minutes Clara asked “Where are we going exactly?”  
“I don’t know I was following you” answered Rory.   
“No, I was following you”   
Rory stopped walking “I thought you were taking me to where Amy went”   
“Well I don’t know where she went! She could be wandering in the streets, crying in an alleyway or in our hotel room: I have no idea because I only know her for 3 days”  
“Take me to your hotel. She will be there I know it” Rory said.  
Clara smile at his last sentence. She could feel their years married together in it. At this moment she assumed that she succeeded, that she helped them.   
So they went along to the taxi driver’s cousin hotel. When they arrived Clara turned to Rory. “Here we are. Room 45, first floor to left.”   
“What? You’re not going with me” he said.   
“I had enough of awkward situations today, thanks.” Clara smirked. “Furthermore that’s none of my business”  
Rory nodded and turned to face the hotel but didn’t walk in.   
“A bit anxious?” asked Clara.   
“Yes, I’m always” replied Rory.   
“I don’t know if that helps but you don’t imagine how much time Amy hesitated before knocking at your door too”   
Rory smiled and slowly entered in the hotel. “I bet he’s going to hesitate again at least 10minutes once arrived in front of the door” Clara thought.

Clara decided to wait outside. She looked at the building in front of her. “Remind me to go back to Chicago then” she said for herself. She started to wonder what she was doing there: she was supposed to find a way to go back into the TARDIS to the Doctor. And now she was in Chicago with a woman she met 3 days ago. She should take care of her own problems; she was too nice that always was her problem… Her problem, she remembered now that Rory took her for a bartender. “Rick’s bar” he said… Wasn’t it the bar mentioned in Amy’s book? None of this was a coincidence she had to take a look at Rick’s bar. She saw the hotel’s owner walk to her. “Everything’s ok, ma’am?” the woman asked.   
“Do you know any ‘Rick Bar’ around here?” Clara asked.   
“Yes of course!” The woman answered. “It’s just 10 minutes from here”   
She explained to Clara how to get there and Clara directly went looking for it.  
How could she be a bar tender in 60’s Chicago? That was absurd. Something was wrong she could feel it.   
She finally saw a bar named “Rick Bar” and went straight for it. But she wasn’t even in when she saw what she wanted to see. She saw the bartender and immediately hid behind a wall. She just saw herself, like it was her but it couldn’t be because Clara was right here but it was. Same height, same nose, same hair, everything was the same… but it couldn’t be.   
Clara decided to go closer to hear something. She heard her talk and recognized her voice and her accent. This was not even someone who looked like her, it was her exactly the same. Clara noticed there was soufflés written on the menu. “You really are me” Clara whispered. “But how? Who the hell are you?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rory has to explain himself to Amy

Rory had waited too long in his whole life. It wasn’t like he had just lived as many years as he says when people ask him how old he is. Rory had several lives in one, it was a side effect of having traveled with the Doctor. He didn’t think a lot about it or he would have become mad Rory had lived several lives in one but in none of them he wasn’t in love with Amelia Pond. He had always waited for her: first he waited for her to realize he was in love with her, then he waited for her to be sure of her feelings, he waited for her to choose between him and the Doctor, he waited for her to prove she loved him, once he even waited 2000 years protecting a box for her … But those last 3 years were different: he wasn’t 100% sure he would see her again, he didn’t know what happened after the angels took him. She may have decided to look for him with the Doctor and he would never know when they’d come.   
Rory waited 10 minutes more in front of Amy’s hotel room before knocking. She didn’t answer the first time. He knocked again and he heard her ask “What?” He searched for a good answer that would make her open the door but he didn’t find it and remained silent. “It’s you stupid face, isn’t it?” she recognized him. “Hum… yes” answered Rory. Amy opened the door, her eyes were red and still wet, her face was covered by mascara but she was still as beautiful as in his memory.   
“You want to explain yourself I suppose” she said “I hope you have a good argument”.   
“Can I come in?” Rory asked.   
After a little hesitation she let him enter in the room.   
“After all this time I’m still not used to decoration tastes in the sixties” Rory commented looking at the tapestry trying to ease the situation but Amy didn’t react and keep avoiding eye contact with him.  
“Clara said you only have been here for 2 years” he tried   
“Because Clara told you about my pathetic story of me desperately looking for you while you were with another woman in another city?” she said quietly still not looking at me.  
“I- I didn’t know … Amy I thought … I wasn’t sure of what you did after …”  
“Oh because you still doubt I’d choose to follow you over staying with the Doctor?” she snapped finally turning to face him. “Because you still think you love me more than I love you? Rory, I touched the angel that took you to be with you!” she continued yelling. “Do you remember what I’ve told you about the angels? The nightmares I had with them? How the first time I met some was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life? And right after he took you I didn’t hesitate for a minute I knew the only issue was to follow you, to face one of my biggest fear to be with you. How dare you still think this way?” tears started to pour in her cheek again.   
Rory had clearly no response to that.   
“Amy” he tried “When I arrived here it took me 5 minutes to finally understand I had been sent in the past by angel. We were supposed to have eliminated the angels remember. It’s in total confusion I started to think about what you three did. I supposed you and the Doctor were trying to find me together. I had to leave the city then because the TARDIS couldn’t land in New York.”   
“And why Chicago?” Amy asked   
“Because I’ve told you I’d like to visit the city so you could think about it”   
“I’ve- I’ve never thought about it this way.” Amy said. “A whole year looking for you everywhere in New York and I’ve never thought one minute about the fact that you didn’t know I had joined you”  
“And Clara pointed out you were there only for 2 years while I’ve been here for 3. That means we missed each other in New York, the angel sent us on two different dates” Rory explained. “I did leave for Chicago right after hoping you could still find me in the right date.”  
“You got a point” Amy said “But have you a good explanation about that blond woman calling you ‘honey’ living in your house?”  
“That’s another story.” Rory said. “I met her in Chicago and she kind of had a crush on me. She was a single mother I wanted to help her with money, with the child… And it ended up with a big misunderstanding but I swear Amy nothing happened”  
“Nothing happened! Amy exclaimed. “You were living in the same house and you didn’t do anything?! You really want me to believe this?!”  
“A couple is not the same with a child around, you know.” Rory tried  
“No, no I don’t know because my only one child was taken from us a week after she born. «Her voice broke, Amy paused for a minute trying to stop crying “That’s the worst Rory: you had a little family life like you always wanted with a child. I can never give you a child after everything that happened and you know I’m feeling guilty about it. That means this blond woman can satisfy you better than me, she can make you happier.”  
“You know I’ve never thought about it like this Amy. You know that’s you I want to live with no matter what”   
Amy moved slowly closer to him. She smiled and kissed him, shyly at first. The lips that had missed each other for so long finally met again and took their time to discover themselves again. They looked at each other for a few minutes without saying anything.   
“What about Clara?” Rory said breaking the silence. “She said she was with the Doctor, where’s the Doctor?”  
“The TARDIS broke. I saw it, it was stuck nothing wanted to move and it refused access to the corridors” Amy remembered. “You should have seen it everything has changed in the inside. It’s all blue and sad.”  
“And the Doctor is stuck in the TARDIS?” Rory tried to understand.   
“I think so, I hope so… only him can make it work again. I said to her I could help her but all I could do is buying her a dress… And look what she did for me: she found you! We have to find a way to do the same for her.”   
“So now we’re ‘we’?” Rory asked  
Amy smiled “Of course you stupid I haven’t done all of this for nothing! …Unless you don’t want to”  
“Of course I want to” Rory said quickly to avoid any other misunderstanding. “To come back to Clara didn’t you notice some weird things about her?”  
“… Why?” Amy asked surprised  
“There’s bar near here and the bartender, whose name is Clara, looks exactly like her. And when I say exactly it’s everything: face, body, accent, way of speaking… everything like her.”   
“Well, I assume weird stuff happen when you travel with the Doctor it must be … I don’t know what it could be but… you know.”   
Rory nodded. “But now you’re talking about it…” Amy continued “She reminds me of someone… You remember that girl in the Dalek Asylum?”  
“The one who saved our lives? Soufflé girl?”   
“Yes, she reminds me of her. She told me she loved to make soufflés. Also she said she played in a Carmen play and remember that what Soufflé girl listened to when we met her.” Amy explained.   
“Did she call me Nina too?” Rory said more as a joke than as a real question.   
“Yes she did.” Amy answered concerned.   
“If she has a double-self in the sixties’ Chicago why not in a Dalek Asylum?” Rory said. “The Doctor would know.”  
“Yes, the Doctor would know.” Amy repeated.  
As if that last sentence were a call, a very familiar noise came from below. They could recognize it among millions: the TARDIS just landed downstairs.

Clara was still thinking about her mysterious double self when she heard it. Suddenly her heart felt lighter and she ran to the source of the well-known noise. It was there: the TARDIS, little blue police bow just in front of their hotel. Clara waited in front of the door waiting for it to open. The Doctor came out and seemed relieved when he saw Clara.   
“Clara! I’m so so sorry.” They hugged and Clara felt safe for the first time in the last 3 days.   
“Doctor, I was so worried! What happened? How did you find me?”   
“The TARDIS had a weird reaction I couldn’t get back to the control room and go find you. I found an echo of the control room and apparently we landed in New York, a city full of time cracks and time energy very bad for her. I tried to fix the front corridor’s door but something blocked the whole system. I managed to fix what the shock broke but I couldn’t find what the source of the problem was. Then the thing that blocked everything was removed, someone took it. So from this I could finally get back in the console room where I could finally finish fixing everything. I could use the TARDIS again so there were two problems left: what happened to you and what caused this crash. I tracked down the object that have blocked everything thinking that you’d probably be in the same place or well I was hoping you’d be in the same place. And tada: I landed here and here you are!” The Doctor explained all of it very quickly.   
“I’m not sure I caught all of it but that’s good, that’s very good.” Clara laughed.   
“What happened to you?” The Doctor asked.  
Clara realized she had to tell him who she met now. And from what Amy told her their split was hard and painful. “I- I met someone who helped me.” She started.   
“This person may have done the whole thing, he may have wanted to keep you for himself but why?” The Doctor started to deduce.   
“No, Doctor. I met a friend of yours, she didn’t do anything I can assure you” Clara said.  
The Doctor didn’t say anything. He seemed to search in his memory who could be at the exact same place at the same time that could have helped Clara and that he knew.   
“Who?” He finally asked worried.  
Clara saw Amy and Rory step out of the hotel certainly alerted by the TARDIS’ noise.  
“Just turn around” she said.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old friends reunion

Have you ever attended to a reunion of old friends? Just as a spectator, without really knowing them or being involved in their relationship. You feel them recognize themselves, remember themselves, and suddenly becoming back what they were when they last saw each other. You don't experience often in your lifetime. You're like a witness of their friendship. You see them tell enthusiastically and very fast what they did, what they became, and then they listen to the others proud of what they accomplished since they saw them for the last time.  
But is the Doctor and his companion just regular very good friends? Maybe they lived too much things together to simply be friends. That's probably why Clara felt so much emotional watching him come with Amy and Rory together again. They hugged, they cried, they apologized for various things, they forgave themselves, they laughed, they talked and talked just happy to be together. Clara sat next to them. She didn't say anything. She wasn't even sure she was listening to them anymore. She was just joyful watching them. She was lost in her thoughts.  
"When I'll leave the Doctor, would we be like this if we met again?" she asked herself. Because traveling with the Doctor and having such a close relationship with him makes you think you're the chosen one. Like if he liked you more than everybody. But Clara knew there have been many more people in this TARDIS who lived the Doctor's adventures for a long time now. She had wondered a lot what the others became and meeting Amy and hearing her story didn't really answer to all her questions. "Does the Doctor see us all like the same? Does he even feel for us the same as what he claims to?" she often wondered when she doubted about going back in the TARDIS with him. In the end it was always those questions which made her go see him again. She wanted to sure, she wanted to know more about the Doctor and what he had to offer. He was a mysterious man –he wasn't even really a man. She kind of wanted to solve this enigma. What she could tell with this reunion is that he clearly didn't have the same relationship with Amy. She couldn't describe it; it just didn't feel the same. She would say her relationship with the Doctor was more ambiguous. She could have had a little crush on him. He was handsome, he was funny, he was smart and brave… Any girl would like that. At this moment she knew she didn't fancy him. Amy shared a deeper relationship with the Doctor and at the moment he only looked at her not saying a word to Clara. However Clara didn't feel any jealousy or envy, she was just happy for them. That didn't mean she totally understood what exactly the relationship she shared with the Doctor was. The only thing that she could say was they didn't feel the same about it.  
"Clara, are you with us?" Amy asked waking Clara up.  
"Oh yeah, I just …" she was too far in her thoughts to do conversation properly. "Do you want something to drink?" she proposed.  
"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We still have cupcakes and soda in the TARDIS"  
"You're not talking about the same cupcakes as the ones we were about to eat when I left, are you?"  
"No, well I don't think so" he threw the TARDIS keys to Clara "Corridor on the left 4th door on the right. There must be cakes and drinks and everything for all of us. We have to celebrate this."  
Clara stood up and went in the TARDIS direction.  
The three of them looked at her go with the smile on their face. All was fine, Rory was with Amy and to him it was all that mattered. Amy couldn't be gladder: she began the day with nothing but hope and now she was with the two persons she wanted to find again, the two persons that had ever mattered the most to her. The Doctor had missed them and had dreamed about that reunion so often since they left. It felt like home, like good old times. They had no idea how long they had been there, hours probably… it didn't matter at the moment.  
"Talking about the TARDIS" Rory started "What exactly happened I didn't catch everything"  
"Well that's a long story and I'm still not sure about what happened exactly" the Doctor answered.  
"We were normally in the console room when I left Clara to go find something in the corridor when the TARDIS suddenly acted bizarrely. In fact she crashed somewhere, I suppose Clara inadvertently touched something on the console, and she blocked me in the corridor with electromagnetic fields. Well it isn't really electricity but powerful energy Time Lord Use synthesized from particles that supernovas emit." He explained very fast.  
"You mean like nuclear energy?" Rory tried.  
"No, but yes a bit like that. Humankind doesn't discover it before the 43th century at least." The Doctor replied.  
"Why did you have to ask for details?" Amy said laughing. "Don't you remember we never fully understand TARDIS' machinery?"  
"Anyway I managed to unblock the TARDIS but I still don't know what caused the field the TARDIS don't usually do that." The Doctor continued. "I think it's an unknown object which acted on the TARDIS' console…The only person who could help me understand is Clara she was alone in the console room she's the only one who could have seen something. "  
"Clara is very good. You choose wisely your companions" Amy said with a nostalgic smile.  
"Yes she's very effective Amy told me she's the one who helped to find me" Rory continued.  
"Yes, she was always motivating me to go search for him and she succeeded we found him"  
"She's good indeed." The Doctor answered a bit gloomy.  
"But I can't help myself to feel like if I've met her before" Amy said.  
"I have met her before. Her exact copy serves me every day in a bar not so far from here." Rory Said. "Can those things happen? Like a double or a ringer?"  
The Doctor paused for a minute "You mean there's another one? Here?!"  
"Doctor what do you mean 'another one'?" Rory asked confused.  
The Doctor passed his hand on his face. "She is impossible" he simply answered.  
Rory and Amy looked at each other. "What do you mean 'impossible'?" Amy asked.  
"I've met several Claras. Not like a lookalike, like the exact same person." The Doctor tried to explain.  
"You mean I wasn't imagining anything when I thought she looked like the soufflé girl in the dalek asylum?" Amy asked.  
"Oswin was the first one." The Doctor explained. "But I didn't see her face in the dalek asylum. After Manhattan I went in Victorian London and I've met her too. She was and bartender and a housekeeper. I recognized her because she said the exact same thing than Oswin did just before killing herself. 'Run you clever boy and remember' and just after she said that she died again."  
"That can't be a coincidence" Rory said.  
"So I looked for her everywhere if I met her twice there should be other Clara… or an original Clara. And I found her, this Clara, in 2013 just a normal English woman."  
"And you didn't find anything weird around her?" Amy asked.  
"No I checked. From her parents encounter to the day I met her, her birth, her childhood… Everything was just normal." The Doctor said.  
"Maybe she's the original." Rory started.  
"Yes, who knows what can happen traveling with you." Amy continued.  
"But what if she's a trap? A trick someone uses to reach me in a way or another?"  
"If you haven't found anything weird about her, I think she's perfectly normal. You can totally trust her." Amy said. "I spent three days with her and I can tell you she's someone you can trust"  
"Doesn't she seem to perfect to you?" the Doctor asked. "She arrive and find the husband you were searching a months in three days."  
"The bartender one is really nice and she's loved but I don't have the feeling she was that 'perfect'" Rory added.  
"Maybe just because I wasn't around. If I'm the target, she doesn't have to be perfect to you alone." The Doctor stopped thinking. "I-I don't know. I really don't know. She's just a mystery to me"  
Amy smiled. "Doctor, you always choose the most enigmatic human to solve as a companion, don't you?"  
The Doctor smiled back. Indeed after the girl that didn't make sense he chooses the impossible girl. He always had a thing for enigmas and mysteries.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All stories have their end

The day ended, the night fell and they all went to bed except the Doctor. But does the Doctor do sleeping at all? That he does or not this night his thought kept him awake. He was walking around the TARDIS’ console, then he went out walk across the desert street and went back to the TARDIS again. If it were a normal day, he would have entered in the TARDIS and just have pushed buttons to go on another destination. But this day he couldn’t leave. There were Amelia and Rory Pond here, he couldn’t leave. He didn’t know how or when he would have been able to leave. Clara probably wanted to go elsewhere but would Amy and Rory want to go with them? He finally recovered from his loss thanks to Clara, thanks to the mystery around her, thanks to new adventures. Now he saw the Ponds again he couldn’t leave them. He wanted them in the TARDIS more than anything, go travel with them again. It would have been perfect they could solve Clara’s mystery together and Clara seemed to get along with them. It was what he dreamt about but he observed Amy and Rory. Their skins started to wrinkle, their eyes started to weaken… they were growing old and that meant their natural death, the one he couldn’t fight, were becoming nearer and nearer. He would never handle it seeing one of his close friend grow old and die before his eyes. That’s why he wasn’t sure he should travel with them anymore, but would he ever be able to say goodbye to the Ponds?  
He lost in his thoughts when Clara came out of the TARDIS in pyjamas.  
’Is it morning yet?’ he asked her.  
She gave him a faint smile ‘No, not at all it’s around 3 or 4 am I can’t sleep.’  
’Are your thoughts keeping you awake too?’  
‘Why? Yours are?’  
‘Kind of.’  
‘Is it about Amy?’  
The Doctor didn’t answer, it was obviously all about Amy he didn’t need to answer.  
‘She … she told me what happened’ Clara started  
‘Of course she did.’  
‘You want to take them with us like the good old times’  
‘Of course I do. They’re very close friends, if I go I might not see them ever again. And it’s always the same story I want to stay with them but I can’t. I had friends, a lot of them and they all left with time. I just a part of your lives whereas my life is all about you all. I go through the universe I can never stop somewhere so I have to leave you one by one and ...’ he sighed and put his face in his hands.  
‘Doctor, I’m not sure Amy wants to travel anymore. She finally deserve normal, quiet and chilled life now.’  
‘Why do you all want this tranquil life?’  
Clara smiled ‘Maybe you should try one day’  
The Doctor laughed ‘No that’s definitely not for me’  
‘Anyway, you should take this as an opportunity to say a proper goodbye to them.’  
They smiled to each other and Clara returned in her bedroom in the TARDIS.

The next time she saw the Doctor it was morning, she was wide awake and dressed and he was making up a curious object full of buttons and little lights.  
‘Good morning Clara!’ he shouted with a large smile across the room.  
‘Hi, Doctor… what exactly are you up to?’  
‘This thing should be able to spot the mysterious object that knock the TARDIS down’ he explained. The object started to do a weird noise. ‘And it’s very near here! Let’s find it out!’  
He jumped off of his seat and walked out the TARDIS. Clara followed him from habit. The more they walked the more the thing made crazy loud noises. They arrived in front of Amy’s hotel room’s door. The Doctor knocked and shouted ‘AMYYY’. She opened the door surprised.  
‘IS THAT YOU WHO MADE THAT NOISE? IT’S UNBEARABLE! YOU PROBABLY WOKE UP THE WHOLE TOWN’ she shouted. But the Doctor already had entered and searched for this mysterious object.  
‘I-I’m in my pants’ said Rory when he saw the Doctor ‘What-what is that’  
‘HERE IT IS!’ the Doctor yelled. He turned the thing off the noise stopped. Clara, Amy and Rory gave a huge sigh of relief in unison.  
The object the Doctor found was a book that Clara and Amy recognized immediately  
‘MY book?!’ they said altogether  
‘What?’ said Rory  
‘Well, apparently it’s me who wrote it in the future so that’s kind of my book’ Amy explained. ‘It’s thanks to it that we found you Rory’  
‘This is the book you brought, right Clara?’ the Doctor asked  
‘Yes, yes it is’  
‘How did you get it exactly?’  
‘I have it since forever. I read it as a child.’ She explained.  
‘Ok, I’m lost again.’ Rory said  
‘In the future, Amy will write this book and somehow it will end up in Clara’s hands when she was a child. She brought it with her in the TARDIS and she put it on a very specific place in the console and pushed a very specific button. Of course she didn’t know what she was doing because Clara doesn’t know anything on the TARDIS actually she doesn’t understand anything about the TARDIS’  
‘Thank you’ Clara said  
‘The TARDIS understood she had to go see Amy so she went.’  
‘But I don’t understand you said that it was impossible for you to go see me’ Amy said  
‘Impossible for me.’ The Doctor explained. ‘That’s why I couldn’t get to the console room. But Clara could’  
‘You’re saying the TARDIS blocked you in the corridors so you won’t see me?’ Amy said.  
‘Well, it kind of failed but yes apparently I didn’t need to go there or I shouldn’t have gone there’ the Doctor explained.  
‘Or she just didn’t want you to see Amy. She’s like that she doesn’t like some people’ Clara said.  
‘No, I think she was protecting him’ Rory said.  
‘See? Rory gets what the TARDIS is all about’ the Doctor said to Clara.

Now they knew everything about the little incident. They all passed the day together but they all know the time to go approached. It was around 6pm when the Doctor finally decided to have the talk with Amy and Rory.  
‘We have to leave.’ He began not sure where he was going. ‘I suppose you… Would you like to …?’  
Amy took time to find her words ‘I-I just don’t think we should go with you even for only one little last travel’  
‘I see, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked’  
‘No but we don’t especially want to leave you… but I’m afraid if we go in this blue box once more we’ll never be able to leave again.’ Amy explained ‘Yes we were tore apart by the angels but it was a final good way to make us decide to end all this adventure with you.’  
‘It was amazing Doctor we can only thank you for everything but we need some rest from all of this’ Rory said.  
‘It’s what you wanted from the beginning. You didn’t wanted to travel, you wanted just to follow Amy and get married like a normal couple. I remember this’ the Doctor said with nostalgia.  
Amy laughed ‘Yes I remember that. I was so scared of this normal life. I so didn’t want it to happen’  
‘You should be glad because what we had wasn’t really what I would call a ‘normal’ life’ Rory said.  
‘Yes but it was the best, and the worst at time. We saw the end of the universe, we worked with Nixon, I met Vincent Van Gogh and he painted a painting former’  
‘Wait I don’t remember Van Gogh’ Rory said  
‘Oh I remember it’ the Doctor said ‘You weren’t there, you were roman or something’  
‘Oh yes, who else got to be a plastic Roman and die several times in his life’ Rory smiled  
‘I agree with the Roman thing but I know at least one person who die way more often than you’ the Doctor said.  
‘See?’ Amy continued. ‘That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Your life is so… crazy. It’s amazing but yet so tiring. You have been a very important part of my life since I was seven. All those years I haven’t grown up because my imaginary friend came true and he showed me so many beautiful things and places.’ She stopped to keep her from crying. ‘But it’s the proper time to grow up now, I’m with Rory nothing can go wrong, I’ll be fine’  
‘It’s Clara’s turn now’ Rory said  
‘Oh yes and amaze her!’ Amy cracked up in tears.  
‘Just take care she doesn’t make a baby in the TARDIS. That’s, that’s nothing but trouble’ Rory said  
Amy laughed.  
All this time the Doctor kept listening to them thoughtfully. ‘I suppose this is a farewell’  
He hugged Amy for at least 5 minutes. He wasn’t crying yet he just had a knot in his throat that didn’t allow him to say anything else. Then he turned to Rory and was about to hug him but instead he just pated his shoulders with a smile. He looked at them both one last time. ‘Well, good bye my Ponds’ he tear was scrolling down his cheek and he just turned and walk away back to his TARDIS.  
Clara that has left for a minute came back I saw Amy in tears, Rory’s saddened face.  
‘The Doctor is..?’ she began  
‘Gone’ Amy moaned.  
‘You should go back to the TARDIS you’re leaving’ Rory told her.  
‘Thanks for everything to you too’ Amy said before hugging Clara.  
A bit confused Clara kissed them goodbye and returned to the TARDIS.  
She found a Doctor leaned of the console.  
‘How are you?’ she asked. So simple question yet she had never asked him this. It was like the Doctor is always fine. That the first time she really doubted it.  
‘Ending, always hating them.’ He answered. He sniffed and ask Clara like if nothing happened ‘So, where do you want to go now? Still want to see 20’s Paris?’  
‘No, next time maybe. I just would like to go home, please.’  
‘As you wish, mademoiselle’ he said before launching once again the TARDIS through the vortex.  
This have been a really unusual adventure for Clara Oswald. Even in her bed she couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about that twin or whoever that person was. She saw what happened to a previous companion of the Doctor. Amy and Rory seemed tired, so tired. And that adventure they had with weeping angel – even forgetting about how creepy those things sounded- seemed awful. It’s like they had seen great things that came with a price. They had lost everyone they just had the other… What if it’s the price a companion of the Doctor had to pay? She only saw the bright sight of those travels but what if what was coming for her was bad, really really bad. She kept worrying about it but when the Doctor came to her door the week after her curiosity took over once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was my first fanfiction ever. Thank you for reading it and enjoying it. I'm still not sure to know what exactly i expected from it or if i'm satisfied or not. I liked writing it even if it was a bit difficult because for some reason i decided to write it in English which is not my first language. Once again thank you for reading. I'm looking forward for your reviews !


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